Poetry: Betrayal: Or, When a Poet Translates Another Poet by Weijia Pan
Weijia Pan’s latest work wrestles with the moon like a monk wrestles with prayer. It asks in the moonlight: what poet has not translated?—has not archived and assimilated?—has not turned a poem’s ending silence into their fitfully aspirant beginning?
Betrayal: Or, When a Poet Translates Another Poet
I walk fitfully into the moon of silence, aspirant.
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The moon, fitfully, aspires to walk into my silence.
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Silence my moon into the aspirant walk fitfully.
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With fitfulness, the moon walk silently, and I.
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Doubly fitful into me walks silence—the moon.
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Triple the moon (mine?) in silence, to walk.
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Walk silently, the moon fitfully to me, aspirant.
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Aspiring to walk silently, I fitfully…
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an aspirin silences fitfulness; I walk into the moon.
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To me, the silent moon, in and of itself—
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On the Path of Aspirants, a fitful silence walks over me.
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The moon forks: all aspirants in frightful silence.
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Two aspirant pieces (I’m their silence) now walk fittingly—
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Wiejia Pan
Weijia Pan is a poet and translator from Shanghai, China. His poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, from AGNI, Boulevard, Copper Nickel, Georgia Review, New Ohio Review, Palette, Poetry Daily, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. A third-year MFA in poetry at the University of Houston, his manuscript Peppered Path was chosen by Louise Glück as the winner of the 2023 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize and will be published by Milkweed Editions in 2024.
